Conventionally, there are known to be image capture apparatuses that change an image capturing direction (pan direction, tilt direction) by causing a camera platform to move, and change an angle of view (zoom position) by causing a zoom lens to move. Also, there are known to be techniques for changing the direction or changing the angle of view for image capture in such an image capture apparatus in accordance with an instruction sent from a client apparatus connected via a network.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-8973 discloses an image capture apparatus that can change the direction of image capture by causing a camera platform to move using a key operation on a mobile phone including a browser function, or a mouse operation on a personal computer. This kind of image capture apparatus can be used in a variety of applications, such as monitoring or TV conferencing, and image capture apparatuses including various camera platforms are used commercially. For example, PTZ cameras, which can cause an image capture unit that captures an image of an object to rotate in a pan direction and a tilt direction and can change the zoom position of the image capture unit, and the like have been used. Hereinafter, changing of the image capturing direction and zoom position will be referred to as changing the image capture position.
In the case of changing the image capture position using a client apparatus, it is desirable that the client apparatus can know, at any time, the state of the image capture position (image capturing direction and zoom position) of the image capture apparatus and the state of a driving mechanism (hereinafter referred to as “PTZ driving mechanism”) for changing the image capture position. Also, in the case where a user using the client apparatus cannot change the image capture position of the image capture apparatus as intended, it is desirable that the user can know immediately whether the cause thereof is an abnormality that has occurred in the PTZ driving mechanism, an initializing operation, or the like.
However, with an interface between the image capture apparatus and the client apparatus, there are cases where no consideration is given to performing clear notification of whether the PTZ driving mechanism is in an abnormal state or performing an initialization operation. For example, with the interface standard of the Open Network Video Interface Forum (hereinafter referred to as “ONVIF”), a field called MoveStatus is prepared in order for the image capture apparatus to perform notification of the operation state of the PTZ driving mechanism. However, in the MoveStatus field, only three values are defined, which indicate that the PTZ driving mechanism is performing driving (MOVE), that it is performing driving standby (IDLE), or that it is unclear (other than driving or standby) (UNKNOWN). Accordingly, even if UNKNOWN is described in the MoveStatus field, the client cannot determine right away whether an abnormality has occurred in the PTZ driving mechanism, or if the PTZ driving mechanism is in initialization.